[Dixielandjazz] Attention, would-be analysts...

[Edgerton, Paul A]

Remembering certain posts from last week, be mindful that music exists first
and our analysis and discussion of it follows...

That said, one must endeavor to distinguish between the root of a chord and
its bass voice. One of the aspects of musical art is selecting a bass voice
that makes a certain amount of linear sense in its own right. Most often the
bass voice is the root of the current chord but that is by no means always
the case. Sometimes you will find the third in the bass, sometimes even the
seventh. It is not unusual to have a descending bass beneath a minor chord.
(e.g. It Don't Mean A Thing)

In the current discussion of chords for the twelfth bar of Charleston, it
has been stated that the "definitive" chord is a Gmi6 with the E in the
bass. It has also been observed that this chord is could be seen as an
Emi7(b5). While that is technically true, it doesn't jibe with what our ears
hear. We (most of us anyway) hear this as a G minor tonality. The E in the
bass makes logical sense since it supports stepwise movement, and adds color
to the voicing, but the G dominates. This is also consistent with the more
commonly used root progressions. It is colorful, but it's not weird.

There is also nothing magical or "forbidden" about the use of flatted
fifths. Chords can be constructed on each note of the scale. The diatonic
chord built on the seventh degree of a major scale just happens to have a
minor third, a diminished fifth and a minor seventh. In the Key of C it is
spelled B-D-F-A and we call it Bmi7(b5). Used in the proper context, this
chord sounds colorful but correct. If you were to change the naturally
occurring diminished fifth to a perfect interval, the resulting
minor-seventh chord would sound distinctly out of place because of its
non-diatonic fifth.

The issue of context is further complicated by the fact that many tunes
contain temporary modulations into new keys, sometimes even a series of
them. This bring into play notes that are not diatonic to the home key, but
colorful and interesting. (e.g. the second chord in Five Foot Two) In some
modulations, a given chord can have a harmonic function in both the old key
and the new one. We call these "pivot" chords because the harmony seems to
turn on them.

One of the goals of analysis is to determine the current prevailing
tonality. Another of the goals is to determine the function of a given chord
with that tonality. There can be some room for disagreement, but typically
one's ears will sort it out. Thus it is always important to hear the music,
and keep track of tonality and modulations.

Is everybody clear on this now? Good. And Steve, there are other
considerations than "What Did Monk Do?"

{O.O}

Analytically yours,

Paul (and ain'tcha glad ya brought it up?) Edgerton